Congress calls for a federal agency to fight terrorism

New Delhi, July 28 (IANS) The Congress Monday appealed to all political parties to support the formation of a federal agency to combat terrorism in the country. “There is a need for a central, federal agency to curb terrorism in the country. We appeal to all political parties to came on board in this regard,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari told reporters here.

Tiwari condemned the remarks of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani that the anti-terror legal framework of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has been weakened after the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA).

The POTA was introduced by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the wake of December 13, 2001, attack on the Indian parliament and was touted as the best remedy to deal with terrorist activities.

The act was subsequently repealed by the UPA government in 2004.

“The opposition’s demand on POTA is unfortunate to have come at this time of grief. We have retained all sections of POTA in the Unlawful Activities Act, except those dealing with human rights violation,” Tiwari said.

“The BJP has gone mad by making such irresponsible statement. They have a frustrated mindset,” Tiwari said.

He termed as “shameful” the BJP’s statement that terror attacks were made to ward off the attention from ‘cash-for-vote’ scam in parliament and said the party may even take legal action against it.